With development of communications technologies, a positioning technology is playing an increasingly important role. The positioning technology is a technology that is used to obtain location information (such as latitude and longitude coordinates) of user equipment (UE) by using a telecom or mobile operator network (such as an LTE network).
At present, a Global Positioning System (GPS) positioning technology is mainly used to position UE. However, the GPS technology cannot effectively implement indoor positioning because no satellite signal is received or a signal is excessively weak indoors. A common indoor positioning technology is positioning implemented based on an enhanced cell identification (ECID) positioning technology. The ECID positioning technology is a technology used to implement positioning by using measurement information such as a cell identity (Cell-ID), a reference signal received power (RSRP), and a time of arrival (TOA). It is assumed that UE enters a building having at least two floors, an access point is disposed on each floor in the building, and at least one access point sends, to the UE, a reference signal carrying a cell identity (ID) of a cell in which the access point is located. The UE reports measurement information of the reference signal to a positioning server, and the positioning server determines a location range of the UE based on the cell identity and the measurement information of the reference signal that is reported by the UE. For example, it is assumed that strengths of signals transmitted by access points are the same. The UE measures reference signals from access points on different indoor floors. The measurement information of the reference signal may include a receive power (RSRP) or a time of arrival (TOA) in the reference signal. The UE sends the measurement information of the reference signal and the ID of the access point to the positioning server; and the positioning server may sort RSRP values of the different access points in descending order, and use a floor on which an access point corresponding to a largest RSRP value is located, as a floor on which the UE is located. Alternatively, the positioning server may sort TOA values of the different access points in ascending order, and use a floor on which an access point corresponding to a smallest TOA value is located, as a floor on which the UE is located.
In the prior art, RSRPs (or TOAs) are measured and are sorted, where a larger RSRP (a smaller TOA) indicates a shorter distance to an access point; and a location of an access point nearest to UE is selected as a location of the UE. If an access point on a same floor as the UE is relatively far from the UE but an access point on a different floor from the UE is relatively near to the UE, incorrect floor positioning is performed on the UE, and consequently floor information of the UE is estimated incorrectly.